For the seventh consecutive year, a woman won the night’s lifetime achievement prize, the Video Vanguard Award, which this year went to Katy Perry.
Her husband, actor Orlando Bloom, introduced her onstage before she performed a medley of her biggest hits, including Dark Horse, ET, California Gurls, Teenage Dream, I Kissed a Girl and Firework.
Perry skated above the critical backlash to Woman’s World, saying: “There are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist. There are no decade-long accidents.”
Perry thanked her family, the LGBTQ community and “MySpace, Warped Tour and all the bygone places where I found a voice, identity and a community so early on.
“I’m excited when I look around music today and I see all the amazing young artists who are operating with confidence, agency, vulnerability and authenticity,” she continued. “One of the biggest reasons I’m standing here right now is I learned to block out the noise that every single artist has to constantly fight, especially women.”
Chappell Roan reads from her diary while she accepts the VMA for best new artist. Photograph: Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV
Rising star Chappell Roan won best new artist, dedicating her win to “all the drag artists who inspire me” and “queer and trans people that fuel pop”.
Reading from her diary onstage, the Missouri native added: “And to all the queer kids in the midwest watching right now, I see you and I understand you, because I’m one of you. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you want to be, bitch!”
Roan’s fellow nominee Benson Boone, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter who blew up on TikTok, also made his awards show debut with Please Stay. The crescendoing – including multiple onstage flips – and falsetto-heavy performance echoed Shawn Mendes, who returned from a public hiatus with his new song Nobody Knows.
Lenny Kravitz performs at the awards ceremony. Photograph: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Lenny Kravitz provided a masterclass in rock star charisma with a three-song medley, while fellow veterans LL Cool J and Public Enemy joined forces for a medley of old-school hits to honor the groundbreaking hip-hop label Def Jam.
But the night, as usual, belonged to Swift, who capped off the evening by becoming the only artist to ever win the night’s top award – video of the year – five times. She shouted out “my boyfriend, Travis” to deafening screams. “Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic, so I want to thank him for adding that to our shoot.”
To the fans, “I’m always trying to figure out a way to say thank you to you for making my life what it is,” she concluded, before following up on her endorsement of Kamala Harris for US president: “If you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important.”
